Joey Jordison Announces New Band Vimic, Streams New Song ‘Simple Skeletons’

Former Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison has been relatively quiet following his dismissal from the band. Scar the Martyr served as his next musical venture outside of Slipknot and the band released one album in 2013 before their singer exited. Now, the iconic drummer has returned with a new band, Vimic, along with a new song off their Open Your Omen debut.

The announcement came earlier today on SiriusXM‘s Liquid Metal station where Jordison called in to discuss his new project and share the first offering of music with “Simple Skeletons.” Vimic consists of Jordison’s Scar the Martyr bandmates Jed Simon (guitar / vocals), Kyle Konkiel (bass / vocals) and Matt Tarach (keyboard). Kalen Chase will be behind the mic. The singer had previously been linked to Jordison last year when it was revealed the drummer was working on a new album, presumed to be the sophomore effort of Scar the Martyr.

“I decided I wanted to start fresh,” Jordison told Liquid Metal host Jose Mangin about the new project. “I did not want to keep rehashing old ideas. If I am going to keep going, I really just wanted to break loose and wipe the slate clean. So I renamed the band, and I got a new singer and a new keyboard player [plus] three other members from the Scar the Martyr lineup. We went down into the basement and started demoing material and everything started clicking.”

Discussing expectations, the drum legend went on, “We didn’t have too many big goals. There wasn’t too much pressure from the label. We just went in, like let’s just go back to getting into the studio, jamming as a band, getting together with our instruments and not having anything too formulated and just creating from the ground up. And that was one of the coolest things about creating this record was it was really old-school style. We’re totally proud of it, man.”

The album, due on Roadrunner, does not have a release date scheduled yet, but Jordison insists rushing the album out is not the way to go, stating, “You can rush stuff, and just get out there to get out there, but I’d rather take the time and make sure everything is just perfectly lined up. We just want to make sure that we’re doing the right thing at the right time.”

The song “Simple Skeletons” can be heard here. Slightly reminiscent of Scar the Martyr’s bottom-heavy riffing, with gritty vocals hinging on the extreme depending on the delivery. The chorus ups the intensity with its bouncy rhythm and anthemic hook.

A few inconsistencies of note: SiriusXM lists former Scar the Martyr guitarist Kris Norris as a member, but Jordison’s cover photo on Facebook does not show him as a member. As seen at the top of the page, six members are in the shot. Also, Simon, Konkiel and Tarach were all previously in Scar the Martyr as well as Norris, which would make for four former members, not three as Jordison had stated. It is unclear where Scar the Martyr ended and Vimic began, which may explain the inconsistencies.